Evaluation in health education. A review of progress, possibilities, and problems.

The quality of evaluation in health education has been an important obstacle to better interventions, and wider acknowledgement of the importance of health education in improving public health. In the past, the urgency of immediate health problems, the practical orientation of health educators, and the complex nature of evaluation in health education have usually meant that interventions were established on the basis of limited research, and with little or no consideration given to the need to evaluate. Progress in evaluation has been painfully slow.